This will be brief but I climbed La Plata on Saturday w/ my girlfriend. We broke out the trail to about 11,000. We decided not to take the standard route due to snow conditions and the fact that the sun was shining and had made the deep snow really sloppy. So, we made our own way which was the most snow free and easiest (in our opinion) to gain the ridge. Once on the ridge its pretty straight forward. The conditions didn't require anything special, we left our snowshoes atop the ridge but actually should have used them. Near the top, from ~13,000 up they would have made the trip much faster but nonetheless, we made it without. All in all it took about 10 hours RT.

(we left the camera sitting on the roof of the car, sorry for no photos) i took bills photo of the peak and drew my line on it but it wont seem to upload.

**Also, lost my sunglasses somewhere on the trail (it was dark). If anyone is up in the area and finds them that would be so sweet!!

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